Featured Georg Jenson Denmark Sterling 209 Brooch

Hi,
My sweetie lost her grandfather and they had an estate sale. My aunt in law was tossing things into the trash. I stopped her and said what are you doing. She was tossing her insulated baby food plate. She said No one is going to buy that piece of junk. I made her a deal. I said mark it 12 dollars and if no one buys it, I will buy it for 15 dollars. She said I was nuts. The FIRST thing that sold was her old baby plate!!!!!! The FIRST thing. I told her just because you would never ever buy anything used does not mean it is junk. Her father's Formica kitchen table and six chairs went for 1200 dollars. My aunt just kept shaking her head at what sold and what did not.
greg

 

The Rule with tag sales is the thing you're sure nobody would ever want will be the first thing to go. It never fails.

 

Reminds me of a household garage sale I had when I was in my 20s with college roommates. Early 1980's. We were broke college students.

Turned out that the same weekend as our sale was the "spring clean-up", so the night before we walked the neighborhood and took a few things for the sale from the things people were setting out for the trash clean up. Snagged a fairly nice rug and as kind of a joke, a couple of full size fake potted plants. I remember trying to subtly walk away with a 6ft fake plant choking on laughter the whole way home, sure that we were going to get stuck with the fake trees at the end of the sale.

What was the first thing to sell?

 

Yep! Score! You have to love free money.

 

Age makes a difference as a brand new one sold one year ago is for sale as second hand and doesn't interest collectors as the first produced ones, this one is an old work, the corrosion around the fixation and on the back comes from a badly down cleaning with solme liquid stay in the hollow part, typically made with standard cleaning products.
What you can make for last rinsing, as we make in the ultrasonic bath at about 30° is to use a mix at 50% demineralised water and cleaning acohol, but be very careful with the flame at this temperature, always work with closed container and have a protection mask with glasses.
The use of this mixture with the temperature gives a very fast evaporation and more a brilliant result than with just normal water.
On GJ brooches, the clasp can be of a large grade through the years, and the finish of the pin depends from the silversmith mounting the jewel at last operation.
Actually you can have exactly the same in 925 silver as on the picture by a classic seller as Bijoutil.

 

Thanks everyone, so I've learned this is not the original clasp, and I thought it was an earlier piece because of the crispness of the design, some I have seen listed are more blunted. Thanks for all the help and research, you guys rock